Nobody kills themselves for being made to look silly on the radio.
It seems more likely that her employers are using the radio thing as a scapegoat for pressure that they themselves have put her under.

How anyone can say these DJ’s carry none of the blame is beyond me, as if they hadn’t made the call the woman would still be alive and her two kids would still have a mother.

They made the call for some laughs at the expense of either the Royal Family or the staff treating her. Personally I would prefer our overstretched NHS staff were focusing their attention on treating patients rather than dealing with hoax calls, but hey may’be that’s just me.

That’s my point. There’s no “shame” in being taken in by someone doing an impression of someone else over the phone.

I’m not sure about that. It’s a bit like being taken in by common scams, even though you know that the folks doing it are skilled and have designed the scam to get by most people you are still likely to feel foolish that somehow you should have spotted it. For most folks this would just be an irritation but if you are fragile at that time for any reason it will be much worse

But I agree, there is no ‘shame’ other than what you yourself feel which is impossible for others to judge

Mothers will normally put the welfare of their children above their own.
Private hospitals with a lucrative contract with the royal family will put their future business prospects above the welfare of any individual employee.
There’s more to this story than is being reported in the media.
The radio DJs are being used as a scapegoat.

The pay and hours aren’t great which means the nursing profession attracts people who want to care for others. Not just their loved ones as most of us but total strangers regardless of their colour, religion or history.

To me that takes a very special individual.

Second guessing the unknown at this point carries no merit or justification when you have a widower and two children devastated by their loss.

it has nothing to do with me, I don’t know her and nothing to do with the whole affair has any concern for me in the slightest.

My only thought about the whole thing is just … “weird”. Especially as the dead nurse hardly said anything on the phone call. I can only think that MTQG is right and that she said to her colleagues “THE QUEEN’S ON THE PHONE!”.

– The fact that the radio station thought it was acceptable to attempt to obtain information about a patient’s medical status by pretending to be a member of the family.

– Ignoring the whole Royal thing, the patient in question is a woman expecting her first child, and was severely ill, which must have been frightening for her and her family (miscarriages being very common in the first 3 months)

– Bearing in mind the Royal thing, the father-to-be lost his mother partly down to press harassment, and now he’s seeing similar levels of media jackassery with his wife

– Surely the DJs must have realised that if they were successful, they’d be putting people’s jobs and professional reputations on the line. And imagine how bizarre the situation is for the nurses – even if you think the situation is a bit iffy, would you accuse the Queen of not being the Queen, and refuse to put her through? It sounds like the palace could have done with bearing this in mind in advance, and told the hospital that the Queen would never phone, to be aware of pranksters, have some sort of security confirmation, etc.

– And finally getting onto the most important part, the nurse in question. Someone working in a hugely stressful job, in even more stressful than usual circumstances, suddenly put in a situation where she’s been internationally ridiculed for being so gullible, and having her professional integrity questioned for not performing proper security checks. Now she’s dead. Awful. Even if she was already in a depressed or vulnerable state of mind, this was a situation that possibly pushed her over the edge that could have been avoided.

As with most of the other opinions expressed, this is just a guess but did two Aussies pretending to be the 80 year old Queen of England and the however old Prince of Wales really expect to be put through? Would the queen make such calls or have an aide do it for her? The call was done in such a ridiculous manner that not having the phone slammed down on them must have seemed remote.

nealglover, how do you know that ?
This is all just speculation.
Like I said, Nobody kills themselves for being made to look silly on the radio.
If it wasn’t this, it would have been the parking ticket, the delayed train, the credit card statement or some other seemingly trivial incident.

The hospital had no Caller Display on their phone and no means of verifying the identity of callers.
The people responsible for the security of the royal family are to blame, not the receptionist or the DJs.

Like I said, Nobody kills themselves for being made to look silly on the radio.
If it wasn’t this, it would have been the parking ticket, the delayed train, the credit card statement or some other seemingly trivial incident.

Aye, if it was a suicide over the radio hoax, at least the DJs will be able to take solace in the fact that they did’t do it, they were merely the last straw or the ones that pushed her over the edge 🙄

Making the point quite rightly about all the speculation, only then to put your perspective on it.

Oh and your last sentence is a pearl. So the DJ’s don’t accrue any blame. Why then have they been taken off air, advertisers pulling their adverts and the DJ’s apologising Why have they apologised if they have done nothing wrong. Must be just you with that perspective.

“If they hadn’t thought it was ok to mess with people then none of it would have happened.”
I assumed you were referring to the suicide in particular.

Traffic wardens hand out parking tickets.
Policemen hand out speeding tickets.
Banks send out final demands.
Schools send out exam results.
Sometimes the recipients go on to kill themselves.
Most victims of radio phone hoaxes don’t kill themselves.
The motives for suicide are complex. You can’t blame it on one single incident without knowing any other background information.

Doesn’t change the fact that they called the hospital and messed with her Job/Life/Career for no reason other than “entertainment” and in doing that, clearly caused her and her employers serious problems.

And if it does turn out that she killed herself, then I don’t see how anyone can say they are not to blame. Even if she was already having some problems.

The people responsible for the security of the royal family are to blame

Finally. After all this, someone has hit the nail on the head. Calls to the hospital regarding the royal family should have immediately been passed onto someone from the protection squad or security services for authentication.

Brits and Aussies [like tour average STW forum user] are a pretty hadened lot, used to a bit of ‘sledging’ and banter.

When the news broke it immediately occurred to me that the nurse maybe foreign, [As are a great number of NHS staff are] and she may not have been as hardened to the kind of banter that we are quite comfortable with. maybe she was more easily fooled by the “Rubbish’ British accents that the D.J’s put on. maybe she comes from a background where dignity and respect are held in higher accord, and consequently she felt a higher burden of shame and remorse/responsibility than your average Brit/Aussie might?

The image portrayed of the royals to a global audience is not one that we necessarily recognise, I have often been surprised at how foreigners Imagine our Royals to be ‘untouchable’ That you may be prosecuted or imprisoned for criticising the Queen e.t.c. If you find this idea far fetched, go to somewhere like Africa or India and ask people there for their perception of the Royal family. Even Sarah Palin thought that The Queen ruled Britain as an Absolute Monarch, [don’t laugh] and in many countries, even so called democracies citizens are weary or scared of criticising or offending their leaders.

Think about this when we say ‘there must have been something deeper going on in her mind’ etc. From my experience traveling and talking to people from other countries about how they perceive [and we promote] the Royals, it really doesn’t come as a massive surprise to me that this nurse may have been overcome with remorse and shame.

Isn’t that a pretty good measure for justice though. How the public feel about something. OK in this case it is pulling advertising etc and therefore letting the company know that as organistaions they are not happy and directly impacting that business. No doubt some would like more to happen but it is an indication of most peoples displeasure at this.